How long to smoke pork loin

The tenderness of the pork loin makes it the most desirable option for the entire family, including kids and elderly people, as such meat is quite easy to chew. There may be several methods to cook pork loin but smoking it would be like icing on the cake and that is what we will be discussing here, with a focus more towards the smoking time it takes.

Prerequisites:

Smoking results for pork tenderloins or anything up for smoke are best achieved when all the prerequisites or the steps coming earlier in the preparation phase are met in the best order. If you do it all right then you will be able to please even the toughest guests at home who usually have complaints about the meat to be done in some other way.

First, you should have a quality electric smoker in good working condition. You should be in possession of an internal meat temperature thermometer in order to get the accurate internal temperature of the meat at different phases of smoking. Moreover, the selection and proper usage of woodchips are also critical to smoking success. Ideally and as per the experts, for pork tenderloins, the best woodchips to consider are maple, apple, and hickory etc.

Knowing about the exact time pork loins take to smoke:

Let us start with a rule of thumb and that is to allow approximately 1.5 to 2 hours per pound of pork loin. Therefore, if you are looking to smoke 5 pounds of pork loin then allow an estimated time of 7.5 to 10 hours. Your internal meat temperature thermometer would be your guide all through the smoking process and you can use it to determine the internal temperature of the meat. Cooking should be continued until the internal temperature of the meat reaches about 145 degrees F. However, some experts also believe that 140 degrees F is also the lowest fine temperature level to achieve and that is perfectly fine too.

The most critical related aspect to smoking time is the temperature of the electric smoker to set. The electric smoker could be set at a temperature of 225 degrees in order to get the perfect results.

The myth about perfectly smoking pork loin:

There are many myths surrounding the smoking of pork loins and multiple other meat recipes for that matter. All of them are not true and this is the time to bust one crucial myth in order to make the smoking of pork loin, a quite enjoyable and tasteful experience for you. The myth is that, since pork loins are boneless and extremely tender meat, so there is no need to go for the low and slow heat approach. The myth also says that a pork loin of 5 pound meat could be cooked in 2 to 2.5 hours when the electric smoker is set at a temperature of 350 degrees F. However, this might work for some who are willing to compromise for some part of the smoked meat, but usually doesn’t work for most of the people.

The truth is that the pork loin should also be cooked with a low and slow heat approach in order to get the best results. People who prefer a juicy inside and a crispier or crusty outside could only get it through low and slow cooking technique.

The above is true smoking guidelines which are USDA approved.

Some post-smoking tips to get the best-smoked pork loin on your table:

Smoking completed doesn’t mean that the food is ready to be served. Rather, you should allow at least 10 minutes to the pork loin to rest at room temperature. Once done then you can slice the meat as per your preference. You can serve it best with the BBQ sauce, which is actually the unanimous choice of the majority of the pork or general meat lovers.